Posted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Voices of NMO
It started innocuously. In 2008 we moved to Ottawa with my employer for my career in pest control. On a gray, cloudy but humid day, I was out removing a wasp nest for a client. She pointed to the nest hanging off a tree branch, about 10 feet away, and I thought to myself, “not […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Proche-aidant.e, Voices of NMO
Jarrie grew up on a farm and declares himself a simple man. I think otherwise. I think Jarrie is a man for whom love is simply enough. Jarrie married his high school sweetheart, Donna, on Valentine’s Day in 1975. She died on New Year’s Day in 2021. Donna’s health began to deteriorate when she contracted […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Voices of NMO
Tiffany was a military brat with both of her parents serving in the Navy, so joining up herself seemed the obvious choice for her. She enlisted in 2006 and met her husband on board a Navy ship in 2009. It was where she was meant to be. Tiffany was stationed in Suffolk, Virginia in January […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Voices of NMO
I am no stranger to rare diseases. At 17, I was diagnosed with Toxoplasmosis. At 22, Phyllodes tumors. Chiari Malformation I at 26. It was not until 2017, when I received the diagnosis of neuromyelitis optica that my life was changed… In early 2014, I moved into a new desk at work. This new desk […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Voices of NMO
The first time NMO hit me was on the evening before Thanksgiving in 2010… I clearly remember it because my wife and I were on holiday in the United States. While standing in the brightly lit Times Square in New York City with flashing lights coming from every angle, I had to cover my left […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Patient.e, Voices of NMO
The differential diagnosis: It is a skill we learn early in medical school and it is designed to guide the clinician on considering the possible underlying causes of a patient’s symptoms. A good differential diagnosis includes possibilities of each category: neurologic, cardiac, hematologic, infectious, etc. We are taught that the best physicians approach a patient’s […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Voices of NMO
My name is Ryan. Three years ago, I was living the dream. I was happily married to my best friend, and we have three beautiful and perfectly healthy children. We all lived together in our new home in Westwood. For the past seventeen years I worked for what is now called Eversource Electric, the largest […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Patient.e, TM, Voices of NMO
On the evening of Sunday, 17th January 2010, my mother was putting up a fight with my brothers and I to go to bed while we were chasing each other through the house. We had school the next day; I was 12 years old at the time. At 4am the next morning, I woke up […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Patient.e, Voices of NMO
Today this is where I am – right here and right now. God has a plan, yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never be – It’s up to me as to how I make the best of it. Much, much more of the story of “NMO & Me” to unfold, as Dr. Will Meador, one […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, ON, Patient.e, TM, Voices of NMO
My name is Kellin. I am a 28-year-old South African NMO patient and this is my story… Late in 2015, my father suddenly passed away. It was a shock to my system and I was not prepared for it. In the months/years to follow, I experienced weird symptoms – which I now know were due […]
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